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We hear lots about our carbon footprint, how big it is and the ramifications
of our petrochemical lifestyle on future generations. How easy is it to reduce
your greenhouse gas emission in any real way; one that does not have you
living in a tent? The answer may surprise you. The electric bike is a giant
stride towards your carbon footprint becoming a carbon toeprint, a phrase I
have coined to describe a new type of lifestyle..
The biggest hurdle with our personal carbon emissions is our cars and trans-
port. The internal combustion engine really is wasteful, always has been and
will be no matter what gizmos they affix to the engine. It’s inherently
wasteful. The technology of cars is industrial revolution stuff that we have
just learned to manufacture really well, but not cleanly.
We are on the cusp of changing our transportation to non-fossil fuel alterna-
tives, primarily electric. Electric motors are very powerful. What runs the
locomotives? What runs the new largest ships in the world? The answer is
electric motors; torque abundant, efficient electric motors. What runs the
most efficient vehicles in the world? The answer once again is electric mo-
tors. The source of the electricity varies, and new technologies are coming
along to produce it from all manner of sources, but the product of infinite
adaptability, electricity, is always the same.
One choice that can take you to the head of the class with your carbon toe-
print is an electric bike. The fuel, electricity, is so cheap as to make it incon-
sequential in the cost of operation. Electric bikes are so reliable that cross
continent voyages are routinely being done by pioneers in a new type of
travel. I’m not saying we should cross continents on our electic bikes, though
we could. My point is we can, now, today, with great reliability and a modi-
cum of comfort, commute on the ultra-efficient, responsible to future genera-
tions, transportation option of today: the electric bike.
Electric bikes are nothing new, quite the contrary, but the battery technology
that makes them a practical alternative to our gas guzzling cars is new. The
lithium batteries on the best bikes today are nothing less than a revelation.
They are light, durable, energy dense and charge for thousands of charges.
The carbon toeprint lifestyle can entirely embrace the electric bike. They are
almost certainly the most efficient motor vehicle on the road. Perhaps they
are the right fit for your lifestyle.
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 11
Your ‘Carbon Toeprint’©; What it Could Look Like.
3/2014
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Aussie e-bike ride 3
E-bike value considerations 2
NZ ebike news 3
Battery position thoughts 4
EZoomers a zine for NZ ebike enthusiasts
BUSINESS NAME
Did you know?
New Zealand is building
bike infrastructure at an
astounding rate and will
become a mecca of off-
road bike routes in the
next several years. Those
of us who live here will
benefit from all these free
bike routes.
Did you know?
E-bike study results
John MacArthur, Sustainable
Transportation Program Man-
ager at the Oregon Transpor-
tation Research and Educa-
tion Consortium did a sur-
vey of new e-bikers and 55%
of those surveyed had ridden
a traditional bike weekly or
daily. That jumped to 93%
after they bought an e-bike!
Importantly, 6% of those
surveyed had not ridden a
bike as an adult. With an
electric bike, 89% of those
now ride daily or weekly!
There were other increases in
distances and hills climbed
that you can dig into with the
study.
I find it a bit humorous the notion that riding any zero-emission vehicle could be cheating. I think it goes back
to the long held Kiwi idea that riding bikes is a sport. We don’t prefer ride bikes to get to work and if we do,
there is a suspicion that we have lost our license or cant afford the car. It’s time to wake up and smell the cof-
fee, New Zealand. Around the world, there is a commuter bike revolution going on and electric bikes are inte-
grally part of that mix. I will present some reasons that this is the case and you will see that it all applies to us
common folk.
“I ride my bike for exercise, so the e-bike would be cheating” Doctors now universally tell us to get off
our duffs and make exercise a part of daily life. Unfortunately, most people don’t find the terrain or
distances to the shops conducive to push-biking. The Kiwi solution is to take the car but it doesn’t have
to be that way. You can take an e-bike about 3 times further than you would a pushbike for the same
puff and carry loads up and over hills and terrain that would be daunting to pedal only. With e-bikes
you get the exercise you need, the lifestyle doctors tell us to have and the groceries in the fridge, no
worries.
“Electric bikes don’t pay for the roads they use” While road taxes do pay for the roads, it’s the fact that we
have so many cars that makes the new expensive roads necessary. The western world is transforming
itself with bikeways and reducing the traffic as a result. Bike riders save money to taxpayers by avoid-
ing road expansions and allowing adults kids to get to school/work without stressing the roading sys-
tem. Many can commute faster by electric bike than by car, while for many others its about even time-
wise. Electric bike use saves the average person heaps. Every expansion of the bikeways proves this
point, with much greater local resilience and economy for the residents.
“We already have roads and bikes are too slow for them” Electric bikes can be significantly faster averag-
ing than push-bikes. This makes them easier in road-sharing situations and easier to pass on the uphill
sections. E-bikes going uphill track much better and car drivers can pass with great safety. Also with
greater speed, electric bikes are passed less often, so there are just fewer close encounters. When the
attitude in New Zealand about bike users sharing the road improves, that will be better for the vast mil-
lions of dollars to be reaped from bike tourism.
“Bikes use electricity and I use gas, both are using power, so what’s the big deal” Electric bikes are about
100 times more efficient to move a person than driving a car. While not going into that calculation
here, the renewable electricity used in these ultra-efficient vehicles is making our air better, our lungs
better, our cities nicer, our lifestyles better, and our pocket books fatter. We should remember that the
lions share of petrol in NZ is shipped from halfway around the world and we extend our foreign debt
each time we pay for it. Keeping the money circulating at home means using energy sources produced
here. Practically there is only one, electricity, and it just so happens that it is a great motive source for
our transport.
“Our cars produce jobs, bikes will cause unemployment.” This is sad logic. A vibrant economy is a thrifty
one. Using resources that are renewable will save us money individually and make it easier to put that
money into investments. Money that goes around comes around, but not the money we send to the
Middle East for oil. That money is gone and won’t come back. Bikes and the infrastructure they need
are a great investment. It saves in health costs, roading costs, auto costs and attracts people that want
the lifestyle of a bike friendly community. It’s money well spent.
For all the reasons above, please consider how we make our communities with the small lifestyle choices . We
can build in a better future for our children with planning and foresight and nowhere does that come into play
better that giving them all the benefits of alternatives to cars. For many, electric bikes make that alternative
real and practical.
Electric Bikes; Why they aren’t cheating. Reprint from the New Wheel
EBH owner rides Queensland routes.
I did a heap of riding around the far north Table-lands and up to Cooktown via the Bloomfield track.
My Forsa was loaded with full panniers and I
camped much of the trip. Here are some of my ob-servations for those interested in bike touring on
electric assist bikes. 1. The bike wheels have to
be very strong. The Forsa I was on did not have
any problems, but the load was brutal. If you really take tents, food, clothing and other supplies that
you will need, you will need the strongest rear car-
rier and the strongest wheels. I did not so much as have a puncture, but the puncture resistant tyres on
the Forsa are rather bombproof. 2. Camping is a
hard way to maintain a bike touring energy pace. I needed a good mattress about every other night,
and I suspect most other 60 year olds would need
the same. Without some quality sleep time its hard
to make a big pedal day. 3.Make a flexible route plan. Weather and circumstance will have its way
with your plans, and that is the core of adventure.
Go with the flow. 4. Know your bike well and love your saddle. You will want to work out any mainte-
nance and comfort issues long before your big trip.
5. Take the biggest battery you can afford. Riding pedal assist Ebikes is a great pleasure and the
pleasure largely stops when the battery is flat. I
rode on the 28 amp hour (over 1000watt hours!)
and it was a revelation to go so far, a full days ride, on the one charge. This big capacity takes alonger
to charge, so count on getting it to the charger in
your off time. When you unload the panniers off the bike, you have the best sport machine you
could want, another e-bike benefit.
New Warehouse completed for Electric Bike Hub
A new 200 sq. meter warehouse and tech centre has just been completed, specifically designed for the ser-vicing of electric bikes. We stock well over 100 e-bikes at any one time and are shipping to the regional sales centres every day. We also have full parts inventory for next day shipping. It’s a lovely light infused work area with a green tinted slab and full workshop space. When you are conversing with us or expecting a bike shipped
to you, it’s happening out of our Nelson facility.
Nelson has proven a great place to base our bike busi-ness, because container shipping comes right into this port from the eZee factory, and TNL has been great in facilitating the importing paperwork. Mainfreight has of-fered shipping rates that keep our domestic distribution
within budget and the whole arrangement just flies. .
The Raptor full suspension off-road powerhouse e-bike is in but it is just in and we haven't ridden it on the trails yet. Murray Hendren
of Motueke has a special interest in how this bike pans out and we
will offer a full report after the full testing period. The controller
can be detuned by programming the monitor on the handlebars to limit that amperage to a legal
road power function so this
bike can be run on the road too.. Off-road, you can open it
up to over 1000 climbing
watts, but it is wasteful of battery charge if you run this
at full power all the time.
EBH bikes in NZ page
We encourage submissions about e-
bikes and issues surrounding e-bikes
for publication in subsequent issues
of EZoomers. Simply drop an email
to Jace Hobbs and your ideas or
article may well find its way to the
NZ e-bike community.
Electric Bike Hub
76 Main Rd. Wakapuaka
Where to put the E-bike Battery
Typically, batteries on e-bikes are in one of two places: on the rear rack area, or low in the centre of the frame. The difference is dramatic for the rider. Top-heavy riding
is one of the least attractive aspects of e-bike usage and the more you add to this with
your cargo and your own body weight, the worse it gets. Quite a number of manufac-turers do put the battery on the rear rack because it allows the use of a standard bike
frame to be converted for their product but it is a poor placement for centre of gravity
and distribution of weight between the wheels. Manufacturing a standard bike frame
and strapping the battery into a carrier mount is quite a bit cheaper than making a
special e-bike frame with the mounts or tracks for the battery.
Batteries are heavy and the bigger the capacity of the battery, even lithium batteries,
the heavier they are. Batteries also need to be protected from accidents, so the frame
should offer the battery a cage to ride in. All this adds weight and that will be impor-
tant to you, the rider.
You will pay a bit more for e-bikes that have well formed supports for the battery, and you should be willing to pay the extra, as this is the most important aspect to en-
sure a long life for an e-bike battery.
eZee pioneered the behind the seat post location for the battery back in 2003, and
that has been widely copied. When WW Ching came out with his Torq with the low
mounted battery behind the seat post, it was a sensation in the industry. It allowed control at higher speeds and was a determining factor in winning of the three Tour de
Prestiegne races riding the eZee Torq.
Special consideration should be given to bikes meant to ride off-road or bikes in-
tended to be heavily loaded. The low centre of gravity of the bike is especially cru-
cial here and should be a primary consideration. Navigating hairpin turns on moun-tain tracks will immediately convince you of the importance of battery placement
issues. The centre of gravity of the bike really comes into play at those times and it
can be the difference between control and being out of control. You no doubt care
about riding your bike in control - always a good look!
In summary, your e-bike battery should be located in or around the centre of the bike, as low as possible. This puts weight on the front wheel as well as the back wheel and
will make for better steering, better feel, and ultimately, better safety.
Balance is needed when going up steep streets, like this pic of going up Baldwin Street in Dunedin, and balance is gained by having the weight low and to the centre
as shown in this photo. BTW, 50 year old Mac Robertson climbed the street four
times for the press that day.
Phone: 64 3 5451122
Mob: 64(0)21 05 1666
E-mail: [email protected].
Please pass this newsletter on to anyone
who would like to get it.
Your next bike could be an e-bike
EZOOMERS -NZ
NEWS AND VIEWS
ON ELECTRIC B IKES